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ore a hole. Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. T. W. Harris.

The whitish mass of soft matter (the center of the nervous system, and the seat of consciousness and volition) which is inclosed in the cartilaginous or bony cranium of vertebrate animals. It is simply the anterior termination of the spinal cord, and is developed from three embryonic vesicles, whose cavities are connec…

luminating power is obtained by introducing a jet of oxygen gas or of common air into the center of a flame fed with coal gas or with oil.

A small round cloud, with a ruddy center, supposed by sailors to portend a storm.

The middle part, cavity, or belly of a sail; the part of a furled sail which is at the center of the yard. Totten.

lculation. Barycentric calculus, a method of treating geometry by defining a point as the center of gravity of certain other points to which coëfficients or weights are ascribed. -- Calculus of functions, that branch of mathematics which treats of the forms of functions that shall satisfy given conditions. -- Calculu…

to represent the precious stone. It has eight scepters or staves radiating from a common center. Called also escarbuncle.

rtridge containing a projectile. -- Blank cartrige, a cartridge without a projectile, -- Center-fire cartridge, a cartridge in which the fulminate occupies an axial position usually in the center of the base of the capsule, instead of being contained in its rim. In the Prussian needle gun the fulminate is applied to t…

Relating to the center; situated in or near the center or middle; containing the center; of or pertaining to the parts near the center; equidistant or equally accessible from certain points. Central force (Math.), a force acting upon a body towards or away from a fixed or movable center. -- Center sun (Astron.), a nam…

The state of being central; tendency towards a center. Meantime there is a great centrality, a centripetence equal to the centrifugence. R. W. Emerson.

To draw or bring to a center point; to gather into or about a center; to bring into one system, or under one control. [To] centralize the power of government. Bancroft.

See Center.

Placed in the center or middle; central. At York or some other centrical place. Sir W. Scott. -- Cen"tric*al*ly, adv. -- Cen"tric*al*ness, n.

Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.

Tending, or causing, to approach the center.

Tendency toward the center.

Relating to the center of gravity, or to the process of finding it. Centrobaric method (Math.), a process invented for the purpose of measuring the area or the volume generated by the rotation of a line or surface about a fixed axis, depending upon the principle that every figure formed by the revolution of a line or s…

res having relative motion, one of the two curves which are the loci of the instantaneous center.

The center of mass, inertia, or gravity of a body or system of bodies.

Having the food yolk placed at the center of the ovum, segmentation being either regular or unequal. Balfour.